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New look at Missouri teen rape case

Story highlights

Cyberthreats prompt police patrols but city says it had no role in dropped case

City will be on high alert for Tuesday's protest promoted by Facebook page

The grandfather of the boy accused of rape is a former state legislator

The grandfather tells CNN that politics had no role in the case being dropped

A Missouri prosecutor who dropped charges in a controversial rape case will ask a court to appoint a special prosecutor to review the facts and look at possibly refiling charges.

Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Robert L. Rice said Wednesday that he was making the request after CNN aired interviews this week with the alleged victim, Daisy Coleman, who says she was raped when she was 14, and her mother.

At a news conference, Rice also cited a recent article in The Kansas City Star that questioned the integrity of the investigation.

"The public trust in our criminal justice system must be upheld at all times," he said.

The case dates to January 8, 2012. But after The Kansas City Star featured the story over the weekend, it gained traction on social media and spread to a wider audience.

The prosecuting attorney said that witnesses in the case invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to cooperate. Rice added that he couldn't provide reporters with court documents showing the witnesses' refusal to cooperate because those records are closed.

He said he was upset that his decision was called into question in media accounts.

"My name was dragged through the mud in that article, and I don't appreciate that," Rice said. Referring specifically to The Kansas City Star story, he added: "The way the article was written inflamed passions."

City of Maryville officials held a separate news conference after Rice's event and asserted that they had nothing to do with the county prosecutor's earlier decision to drop charges.

The city, however, has been targeted with cyberthreats in the wake of publicity about the case, and public safety patrols have since been increased, City Manager Greg McDanel told reporters.

"We've been stunned by the nature of cyberthreats" against the city in general, he said. "In recent weeks, the city has received a great deal of negative attention.

"It's detrimental to the lives and livelihood of the residents of Maryville," McDanel added.

There's been a public "misconception" that the city was involved in the investigation, he said. "The city of Maryville was not involved ... in any way."

'Insufficient evidence'

Rice has said he dropped a sexual assault charge against the boy because the alleged victim and her relatives refused to cooperate. A charge against the boy's friend who was accused of recording part of the incident on an iPhone was also discontinued.

The iPhone video was deleted the night of the alleged assault and wasn't retrievable, Rice said Wednesday.

The alleged victim told CNN that she believes the charges were dropped against Matthew Barnett, then 17, because his grandfather is a former state legislator. That relative, Rex Barnett, told CNN Wednesday he had "absolutely" no role in the prosecutor's decision.

CNN does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault but has done so in this case because Daisy and her mother, Melinda Coleman, have chosen to go public.

Both mother and daughter have denied refusing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Rex Barnett, a former Republican state representative who is a retired 32-year veteran officer of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said he made a deliberate decision to avoid local police and prosecutors during the investigation because of his political standing.

"As long as I've been in politics and law enforcement, I knew that if this thing drug on long, I would be pulled into it somewhere, I think, just for political reasons," Barnett told CNN. "So I made it a point not to talk to the prosecuting attorney, to the sheriff, to any of the witnesses directly or indirectly, and I stuck to that. And I'm glad I did."

He said the case was dropped "because of a lack of testimony from the complainants. And without that, the prosecuting attorney has no case."

The ongoing controversy has been hard on his family, he said. "It's been tough," he said. "I mean, we thought it was over a year and a half ago, and to my knowledge, there has been no change, nothing more evidentiary has come up that I know of.

"But (the case has) resurfaced, and I'm not sure why," he added.

Barnett, also a deacon in the First Baptist Church, was first elected to the Missouri General Assembly in 1994. He served four terms until 2002, The Kansas City Star said.

In a recent statement, Rice said that "there was insufficient evidence to prove a criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The State's witnesses refused to cooperate and invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege to not testify," he added.

Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White told CNN that his office and the prosecuting attorney had been ready to prosecute but did not move forward because the victim and her family refused to cooperate.

"The only people's stories that have been inconsistent throughout this whole thing are the Colemans' -- are the victims in this case -- and I don't know why that is," White said.

Protest planned

Reacting to the lieutenant governor's call for a grand jury review, the sheriff said that his office handled the case "flawlessly."

In an interview with CNN, White described the elder Barnett as someone he had known for more than 30 years. "He's a man that I do consider to be a friend," the sheriff said. But he described as "absolutely shameful" any suggestion that Barnett would have tried to influence the investigation into his grandson.

Melinda Coleman said White had initially told her that other girls had come forward to accuse the same group of boys of similar conduct but changed his story. "He said that they were all liars. I digitally recorded him saying they were all liars and that they just wanted to crucify those poor, innocent boys.

"So my concern is what is it going to take for them to do something here? Is one of these girls going to have to die?" the mother said.

In the weeks that followed her daughter's alleged assault, Coleman said her children received threats. She was also fired from her job as a veterinarian at a clinic. Daughter Daisy is now 16.

The Colemans have since moved from the 12,000-resident town in northwest Missouri, about 100 miles north of Kansas City.

In April, their house in Maryville -- which had been vacant and for sale -- burned. The state fire marshal said that "due to the unsafe nature of the structure, a detailed examination could not be conducted and this fire loss is being listed as undetermined."

A Facebook page campaign called "Justice for Daisy" says a public rally is scheduled for Tuesday at the Nodaway County Courthouse. Protesters will carry daisies in their hands.

"We will increase patrols and do everything in our power to protect our citizens," McDanel said of the protest. "We will remain on high alert."